Just a quick bit about me – I have always loved photography, and I just recently bought my first DSLR – a Nikon D5100. I have no preconceived notions that I am going to be a professional photographer (in fact, my career is on the other end of the spectrum – healthcare!), but I appreciate the craft and consider it a big hobby of mine. I don’t really have a desire to ever charge people for my services, I just love to take pictures and my goal is to one day take great pictures as I learn more. Most of what I have learned is from photography websites and Photoshop manuals.

Soon after I purchased the Nikon, I did a “maternity photo shoot” with my best friend and her husband. When she has her baby, she asked me to do a newborn shoot as well. I plan on printing some of the pictures for a collage frame or an album as a gift to her. I know a lot of the photos are considered cliche, but we had a lot of fun doing it, and I had fun playing around with different settings Photoshop. Keeping in mind what my goals in photography are (having fun, taking great pictures of family, friends and various destinations, gift giving)), I would greatly appreciate any feedback you all could lend me. These are some of the photos I took (some I like, some I don’t) -

I can see what you mean by having fun. It comes through, especially in the pictures with the chalk board. You definitely have creative, fun stuff, and it seems technically sound to me. I find your backgrounds a bit too busy for my taste. Sometimes it works (like in 138), and sometimes it doesn’t (like in the black and white window pics). The backgrounds tend to distract me, especially in those window pictures. I look at them and wish there was something else than a house in that window.

Thank you very much! I definitely agree that the backgrounds were too busy. I loved taking the silhouette photos but I wish I found a place with a less busy view through the window to do it. I know I rushed a bit when shooting and so the composition is off, and there were some pictures with awkward limb chops that I had to trash. ¬†Do you have any suggestions (beyond finding a different location!) such as in the editing process or in a way I could move with the camera ¬†to make the backgrounds less distracting?

Seeing outstanding composition with your bare eye takes a few years to develop. My only suggestion is to fill your frame a bit more and reduce the headroom in your images. I like your silhouettes but your lens is holding you back. Faster glass will blow out the background and isolate your subjects better. You can try to cheat the system a little by zooming in to max focazl length and keeping the lens at its maximum aperture. You’ll get closer to softening the background but it won’t reach pro level until you invest in something that can shoot 100 mm at f2.8 or faster.